2016 has been the worst ever start to a year of trading for the US stock market. The VIX is hovering near 30 as investors are exiting positions and moving into safer positions. The release of earnings reports for quarter four of 2015 hasn’t helped the markets recover very much either. The price of oil continues to dominate headlines and stock movements as oil stocks move lower and the price of oil declines.

Surprisingly insider selling hasn’t moved higher with overall selling in the market. And some insiders are actually taking this opportunity to purchase more shares of their companies.

Barnes and Noble (BKS) saw a director purchase 5000 shares recently as the stock has bottom out around $8.25 a share. The stock is down 44% this year as the Nook didn’t deliver on sales and the retail business has suffered with Amazon dominating book sales nationwide. Sales at retail declined from $1.84 billion to $1.80 billion over the last year. Digital sales including Nook devises fell from $133.9 billion to $97.8 billion. This one director, Scott S Cower, sees some upside but investors and hedge funds are still resistant to going long.

OFG Bancorp (OFG) had some enthusiastic insider trading with the last month. CFO Ganesh Kumar, Chairman Julian S Inclan and CEO Jose R Fernandez all increased their share holdings by about 4000 shares a piece. The bank has 52 branches in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been facing serious financial issues with government debt, a decreasing population, a tough housing market, and a recession. OFG stock is down 60% over the last year. The company has seen interest income decline over the last year too, almost 16%. But yet insiders are purchasing shares and hedge fund Second Curve Capital have purchased shares.

The Failure of the Nook | Investor Beat - 4/3/14 | The Motley Fool